


Repercussions

by G_the_G



Series: Avengers University [19]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Angst and Fluff, BAMF Natasha Romanov, F/M, Fluff, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, steve rogers - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-30
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2019-04-14 18:53:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14142396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/G_the_G/pseuds/G_the_G
Summary: Darcy is figuring out just what she wants while everyone else is figuring out what happened.





	1. Chapter 1

Darcy’s feet stuttered, trying to slow herself down before she skid into the doorjamb. She was only half successful and stumbled into the lab, not fully slowing down, merely changing direction like a ball in a pinball machine.

“JANE!”

Her eyes darted around, both in hope and fear, but it wasn’t Jane who popped their head out of the office.

“Uh,” Ian mumbled, “She’s not here.”

“I can see that,” she said, head still frantically looking around the empty lab. “Where is she?!”

“A date?”

“Is that a question?”

“Uh. No. She and Dr. Odinson left about an hour ago. I think they were going to Mt. Something or other for some stargazing.”

Imagining the love-sick duo giving that excuse, she couldn’t hold back a snort. “Stargazing. Right. That’s what those astrophysicists are calling it today.”

Ian tinged a little red and shifted side to side.  “Did you need something?”

She finally stopped scanning the room letting go of the irrational hope that Jane would suddenly pop out from behind or out of one of her machines and turned to Ian with her eyebrows raised sarcastically. It was necessary that she give obvious signs of her tone, he wasn’t always the best at picking up her sarcasm voice. “No, I just like to run in here screaming her name for fun! Of course I need something. Her!”

He jumped mildly when she yelled the last word, but stayed completely, annoyingly rational. “Are you gonna hurt me if I point out that you ran in here screaming her name just last week to tell her that you found out that President Fury actually has a middle name and a mother so he is half as likely to be a robot?”

Darcy narrowed her eyes, causing Ian to fidget under her stare, but she did no more. “Point taken.” And then she deflated, letting out a long sigh as she walked over to the nearest chair and sunk into it. “Janey. Where are you Janey? I need my Janey.”

Thankfully, he realized finally that it was rhetorical and didn’t answer the question he’d already explained. “Uh, I think she was talking to me and not on the phone or something earlier." He paused looking at the ceiling as he squinted in thought. "Or maybe she was just talking to herself? She really does that a lot." Darcy cleared her throat, waiting for him to continue and he took the point. "Anyway, I seem to remember she said you were probably busy since you hadn’t been around the last week. And since she never heard anything about how things went with the lumberjack, you might be, and these are _her_ words, ‘busy doing the old black hole to bulge mass relation’ so she was going to just wait to hear from you.”

If it wasn’t for the ridiculous hunch of his shoulders and blush, she would have sworn he enjoyed relaying that tidbit. She would have. But Ian was only showing that he remembered far too much about things she wished he didn't pay attention to. Why couldn't all the scientists be as distractable as Jane when she wanted them to be? But this is what she got for taking a few days to lick her wounds and not telling Jane than operation Lumberjack had been an unmitigated disaster. The memory mixed with her current predicament had her groaning and leaning her head back to stare at the ceiling.

“We’re _not_ talking about that." She groaned again for good measure. "I just...woe. Woe is me.”

“Uh, sorry?” Ian slowly began shuffling away and visibly jumped when she suddenly sat up and pointed at him.

She'd realized she already had an answer to her predicament. And he was standing right in front of her, awkwardly shuffling his feet with his shoulders still half hunched up. “Ian!”

He looked more confused than afraid at her sudden shift in emotion and leaned away. “Yeah?”

“What are you doing tonight?”

“Uh, I was, uh, grading?”

She grinned and sat up, folding her arms. “You still have that suit you wore for the Thor Symposium, right?”

“Yes?” he said, voice changing octaves as he went from only partly confused to completely lost. 

Darcy only felt mildly guilty that she planned to exploit that reaction.  “Good. I have a Poli Sci conference that I need to go to. One which my adviser failed to tell me until fifteen minutes ago was mandatory for to me to attend. I was gonna drag Jane and maybe Thor for moral support, but they have failed me. So, you come with me and I’ll help you finish grading. I might even buy you a lollipop if you’re on good behavior.”

“Uh,” Ian paused, scratching at his ear, shoulders hiking back up as he did so. “Like a date?”

Darcy was about to shake her head and then paused. Why the hell should it not be a date? She'd had time to think over the last week, and there was no doubt about it. Steve had been an ass, apparently leading her on all semester. Or whatever he'd been doing. And while she wasn’t really into Ian, there was no point in waiting around for something that wasn’t going to happen. Mind made up, she nodded. “Sure, a date.”

She half expected him to argue for some reason, but he nodded. It wasn't enthusiastic, but she'd take it, so she clapped her hands and stood. “Right. Okay. I gotta go home and change and make myself look hot but also professional since I probably have to schmooze these peeps for the next year minimum. You good with meeting back here in about two hours?”

Ian’s head bobbed up and down and she felt a weight lifting off her shoulders. With a genuine smile, she stood, lightly punched him on the shoulder, and headed out the door with a cheery, “see you later.”

 

Five hours later, Darcy found herself walking across campus, her fancy shoes in one hand and one arm tucked through Ian’s because she’d finally relaxed. That night, it had became obvious she didn’t need to try so hard at the schmoozing. Phil was clearly happy, showing her around, introducing both her and her research to the other big-wigs in the department like a proud mother hen. And Ian had stopped being jumpy whenever she man-handled him around as she was prone to do with those she approved of. He'd even settled into an easier back-and-forth, teasing her at least once for every two jibes she sent his way, and she was grateful.  Plus, catering had set out a whole bunch of the cheap champagne out in the last hour. Those political types seemed to be all about greasing the wheels with some well-plied alcohol. So one very relaxed, maybe a little more than tipsy Darcy was making her way home with her new best guy friend; barefoot because her high heels had turned into weapons of torture two hours before that.

“You know, you’re not a half bad date.”

Ian tipped his head down to look at her, eyebrows raised. “Really?”

She narrowed her eyes. “Yes. Why do you seem so surprised?" He purposed looked away and she became suspicious. "Or should I say invested?”

“Oh, uh, no reason.” He looked down at his feet and kept walking. 

But she wasn’t about to let him get away with it. “Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me,” she said, pulling him to a stop and shaking his arm with each word. 

He finally laughed a little self-consciously. “I just, there’s this girl I wanted to ask out. And I haven’t really dated a lot. And I figured it’d be good to know if I was bad and what I should do to fix it. You know, identify the weak points before going for it.”

“GASP! Ian, you used me! I’m practice?”

He nodded nervously at first, but then stuck his chin out in defiance. “Uh huh, and all night I've been the one used for  moral support so you are not able to cast stones.”

Darcy laughed, and put her arm through his to pull him forward and get back to walking. “So, tell me about this girl.”

“Her name is Beth.”

“And….?”

“And….” Ian paused, hesitating, but when he saw Darcy’s curious face, all his reserve seemed to dissipate. “She’s from New York and is studying art here. She’s super cute and funny and nice and the way she laughs when she thinks something is funny just makes me stupid. And I don’t know how to ask her out but we’ve been hanging out for the last few weeks and I can’t tell if she’s interested or not and yeah.”

Unable to restrain her response, she squeezed his arm to her chest in a hug. “Aww, you’re so cute.”

He huffed in response, but tucked his chin with a small smile.

“Seriously. If she’s been hanging out with you for weeks I’m sure she’s learned you’re nice and kinda funny too. Not just funny looking.”

Ian rolled his eyes. “Ha ha, thanks.”

“No problem,” she said and giggled. “So, how did you two meet?”

“At the symposium for Dr. Odinson. She works for catering.”

“Wait,” Darcy mumbled, her thoughts were fuzzy but she pieced a couple things together. “Is that why you didn’t want to go to that other campus party we walked past earlier? You were worried she’d be there?”

He nodded. “She said she was doing a party for the Math department and I didn’t want to risk it since I’ve had a lot of math classes in that building.”

“Smart." She gave his arm a pat of approval. "Also, if she’s into you, you don’t want her to see you on a date with someone else.”

“It sucks. I know. It’s happened to me.”

“Really?”

He nodded again with a rueful smile.  “Yeah. A couple of times.”

“Ouch.”

He shrugged and they slowly made their way along the sidewalk in companionable silence for a couple minutes before he asked a question. “So, how do you know that professor you were talking to tonight? Dr. Romanova, I think?”

“Natasha?”

He made a weird noise in his throat when she used her first name. “Yeah, her. She’s terrifying.”

“No she’s not.”

He shook his head emphatically. “You didn’t see her when she looked at me. She was so nice with you but then when you introduced me I swear her expression shifted like she'd expected someone else and I would have been better off dead.” When she didn’t say anything as she pondered that, he pushed the subject. “So, how do you know her?”

“She’s uh, a friend of Steve’s.”

“Steve?”

“Dr. Rogers.” When Ian still looked clueless, she shook her head and said on a sigh, “the lumberjack.”

“Ohhh. No wonder she was mad. She probably wants you two to get together as much as Jane and Thor.”

  
Darcy let out a long sigh.  “Don’t remind me.”

“You don’t want...but I thought you were into him?”

Some of her happy, relaxed mood began to fade and she walked along thinking to herself for a couple seconds before answering. “I am, or I was, I don’t know. I just. I went for it and he said it was a bad decision and I’m not gonna think about it. Okay?”

Thankfully, Ian took pity on her. “Okay," he said with a shrug. "Works out for me. Now you can give me pointers on how to ask out Beth.”

“There you go, using me all over again,” she said after a snort. He looked like was about to apologize this time, so she cut him off, switching her shoes to the hand that was through his arm so she could pinch his cheek. “I'm just so proud. My little baby, learning so fast. Growing up.”

He huffed out a laugh and she have his arm a friendly hug again, resting her head on his shoulder, half grateful Jane was gone and she had yet another day to try and figure out her thoughts before she had to explain everything. With a half sigh, she pulled her head up. No point in dwelling right then.

“Right. Beth. Let’s strategize.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha expresses her opinion as only she can.

Steve had sweat gathering heavily in his shirt, weight it down. He could feel the tiredness in his shoulders, the building pain in his hands, having been going at the punching bag in his garage for a good twenty minutes. He had paused to catch his breath and was thinking about calling it when he heard the door open and saw Natasha come in. Judging by her lack of expression, he wasn't going to like whatever she'd come to say. Turning back to the bag with a growl, he went back to punching, almost wishing each hit might knock some sense back into his life.

“What do you want?” He didn't turn toward her, just kept hitting with a steady rhythm. 

“You’ve been avoiding your friends this week, most especially me.”

Natasha had walked into the room, coming closer to where he swung at the bag and he stopped, noticing the hand pads she now wore.

“I don't wanna practice with you. I don't feel like holding my punches.”

“Good,” she said stepping closer and crowding him until he stepped away from the bag. “Neither do I.” When there was enough space for the both of them, she held her hands up with a raised brow, waiting.

With a shrug, he took a couple more steps back, dropping back down into a boxing stance. After a couple punches she threw in a swipe, and he knew this wasn’t going to be an easy practice--physically or mentally. And considering she hadn’t even started chewing him out for whatever it was she thought necessary, probably emotionally as well. But he was silent, simply focused on hitting the pads. If she wanted to talk, she could talk. He didn’t need to bring it up.

“So,” Nat began a couple minutes later. “I saw Lolita the other night.”

Steve purposely ignored her comment, avoiding correcting the nickname for her actual name like he usually would. He didn’t care. It didn’t matter. Or at least that’s what he’d been telling himself with every hit of the bag earlier.

“She was on a date.”

Steve paused for half a second at her comment and hated himself because he knew she noticed it. That was as good as a confession with Nat. And he didn't want to admit to himself that his stomach had sank thinking about her out with someone else. But then the anger came back, anger at himself. Because he shouldn't care. He didn't. And that's what he told himself with each punch. Don't care. Don't care. Don't care.

“It got me wondering," Natasha said with no strain in her voice despite the fact that she was didn't budge an inch with any punch she caught with the pads. "Why would she be on a date with some little college boy and not you?”

 he grunted, increasing the speed of his punches. “It’s a free country.”

But Natasha of course kept pace easily, becoming even more aggressive in her swipes at his head and midsection. “I'm aware. Which is only part of why I was all for you dating her. You both were interested. Very willing if my observations were correct.”

He didn’t answer. Only punched harder and braced himself when he saw Nat’s lips curl up at the side. It was never a good thing when she was angry and smiling. And he knew her well enough to know that despite her even tone and graceful movements, she was pissed.

“Or was I wrong, Steve?”

Not expecting the question, he hesitated. She took advantage and clobbered him over the side of the head with the pad. Considering how much padding there was and how much it hurt, she was swinging damn near full force. Shit.

“Tell me,” she said when he shook off the hit and went back to punching. “Were you not interested? And don’t lie. It only makes me angrier.”

He grunted knowing she was telling the truth. If he wasn’t getting short of breath, he would have sighed. “I was interested.”

“Oh, good, so glad you’re finally admitting that. So what happened? What did you do?”

“What makes you think I did something?” He barely ducked in time to miss her swipe that came after his question.

“Because you didn’t see the look of panic and then relief when she spotted me and _only_ me at the event we met at last week. But I saw it.”

He grunted and punched harder, hoping it would distract Natasha at least partially. He’d never meant to hurt Darcy. But it was better this way. The sooner everyone else realized it, the better.

“So I ask again. What did you do?”

“Nothing.”

She swiped and he was too slow this time.

“You’re lying.”

He growled, and punched back, taking a moment of satisfaction when she had to step back from the force of his hand hitting the pad she held. But it was only a momentary give, an instant later she was swinging the pad at his head and he was on the defensive for a couple moments before he could get back to swinging. At that point he figured it would be easier to just tell her and get it over with.

“I kissed her.”

“You kissed her?”

The doubt in her voice started edging his own frustration higher. “Fine, she kissed me and I kissed back.”

“I thought so. Then what?”

“Then nothing! I said it was a mistake.”

“Why?”

“Because it was. It wouldn’t have worked out?”

“Why? Because you weren’t interested?”

“I already told you I was.”

“Then because you were just leading her on?”

“No.”

“Then what?”

“I don’t know!” He punched twice as hard as he had been but she’d been expecting it and didn’t even flinch. “I’m a professor and she’s a student.” He continued to punch as he forced out each sentence through clenched teeth. “I was only thinking with my dick. It was fun in the boundaries of class but it would have fizzled after. I’m settled here and she’s probably gonna be gone in a year and we all know distance is a killer. Take your pick. I just know it wouldn’t have worked.”

Natasha’s eyes narrowed and Steve increased the speed of his punches, knowing another attack was coming.

“So you took the decision from her.”

“No.”

“Yes, you did,” she snarled, swiping at him again. “You were too scared so you decided it wouldn’t work. So you took the coward's way out. You quit.” Swipe. “You shut her down before there was any time for something to happen.” Swipe. “You were an idiot, hurt her, and are now punishing yourself because you know it.”

This time the pad connected with his head and in a flash of full anger no longer directed at just himself, Steve fought back, lashing out at full force. He was tired enough and Natasha too skilled so none of the punches landed anywhere but the pads, but it didn’t matter. She was right. And he hated that she was. He was punishing himself for wanting her despite feeling like a lecher the whole time. For responding at all, for letting himself take it further than it ever should have gone if he’d wanted to keep it strictly professional. Punishing himself for hurting her to protect his own sorry feelings and still having to talk himself out of riding over to her house every single day despite that fact.

He froze, finally having admitted that last truth to himself, and Natasha struck. She hit him in the gut, knocking the wind out of him, and followed that up with a hit to the head when he was bent over. As he lay there on the ground breath coming in gasps, she stepped closer to stand over him.

“I know that you know I’m right. So I am being nice and stopping this here. I love you Steve, but you need to get your shit together. Figure this out. Figure out if this is just you being scared or something else. Because Peggy’s in the past and never coming back and Darcy was right there. It’s time you moved on. It’s time you let yourself be happy again.”

Having said her piece, she took off the pads, and dropped them on the ground next to him before turning and heading out the way she came in. Steve just groaned and continued laying on the hard concrete, clutching at his midsection.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I suddenly realized I haven't been inviting you all to come hang out on tumblr. Please do. I'm [awwww-brain-no](http://awww-brain-no.tumblr.com/) over there.


End file.
